The problem David Brooks is that human capital does not result from getting a sheepskin but rather the sheepskin (and $58k) results from having human capital

College has become such a cargo cult. And apparently Dave Brooks is a high priest:

Today, too many people are focused on the top 1 percent. But, as economist David Autor has shown, if you took all the wealth gains the top 1 percent made between 1979 and 2012 and spread it to the bottom 99 percent, each household would get a payment of only $7,000. But if you take a two-earner, high-school-educated couple and get them college degrees, their income goes up by $58,000 per year. Inequality is mostly a human capital problem.

Hattie Carpe Diem

http://www.aei.org/publication/blog/carpe-diem/